Colombia is full of magic and mystery and there is barely a village in the country that does not boast its own spirit or superstition. Some ghost stories have become so entrenched in the national psyche they are known countrywide, frightening young children and keeping errant spouses in their place.
Most of these tales are passed from generation to generation. Colombia is a country of magic and mystery and it’s clear that when it comes to bone-tingling myths and legends, the answer is Colombia.
El Sombrerón
The legend of the Sombrerón (The Man in the Hat) supposedly began with a real villager. He dressed all in black and rode a black horse and was a stern-faced, well-dressed man who harmed no-one. But when he died his spirit became the terror of those who wander the streets at night and cause mischief (drunks, cheats, gamblers and fighters).
The Sombrerón is said to chase his victims through lonely, moonlit areas where he is sometimes accompanied by two fearsome black dogs. This legend is told most often in Antioquia, although the “Black Rider” and “Headless Horseman” often described in Tolima, Huila and the Cauca Valley share many of his characteristics.
El Mohán
The mohán is everyone’s favourite monster. Although his description does vary from place to place, he is usually a huge creature, covered in hair with long, claw-like nails. He sometimes has red eyes and gold teeth and is fond of mischief. Fisherman say the mohán capsizes boats and steals bait and hooks. Washerwomen claim he bewitches girls with music and tricks. He is also said to guard ancient treasures in his underground palace and his appearance heralds the arrival of floods, earthquakes and plagues. The mohán is sometimes known as “Poira” and his story is most commonly told in Tolima.
La Patasola
The patasola (One-Legged Woman) lives in dense jungle and is especially feared by miners, hunters, farmers, hikers and loggers – not least for the pace with which she moves through the jungle on just one leg. Some say the patasola appears as a beauty who entices men into her lair then traps them as an ugly, wild-eyed woman. Others say she attracts men by screaming for help before transforming into a murderous, blood-sucking beast. Men supposedly tell the story of the patasola tofrighten their wives into being faithful and also instill a wariness of the jungle. It is thought the story originated in Tolima.
La Llorona
The llorona (Wailer) is a wandering woman who carries a child through the streets. She’s muddy, wild-eyed and dressed in rags and never shows her face. Some legends say she screams for aid, but anyone who carries the infant inherits the curse to become the new llorona. The spirit is said to stalk lonely places and appear to anyone plotting mischief. Some say she was a jealous woman who killed the child’s mother in rage. Others that she was a desperate wife who killed herself, and a child she had with her lover, when she heard her errant husband was returning from war. The story of the wailing woman is particularly popular in eastern Colombia, in the region known as Los Llanos.
La Llorona or The Weeping Woman is a story commonly told where a woman who has lost her kids cries by the river while looking for them. In this urban legend, those who hear the woman’s cries tend to suffer some misfortune in their lives. There are several versions of this story but the most common one is of a beautiful woman named Maria who drowns her children in the river in order to get revenge for her husband leaving her for a younger woman. She then realizes what she has done and begins to cry and ultimately drowns herself. In a combination of religion with fairytale and legend, it is said that she was denied the entrance into heaven for her heinous actions. La Llorona ends up finding her children but she is left living on this earth in limbo for eternity. This story was told to me as a child in a way to prevent me and my sisters from going out at night because La Llorona will come and get you. It is said that La Llorona kidnaps and kills children.
5 Most Popular Legends and Myths of Antioch
La Patasola
Most stories tell of a beautiful woman who attracts men who walk alone in the jungle. Whether its beauty or its pitiful moans in the distance, manages to attract the walkers within reach. At this point, the story has different versions. Some talk that, as men approach, they become a monstrous creature that sucks blood from its victims. Others talk about a woman with nasty features and cat teeth that attacks them until they end their lives.
Rider Without Brambles
Known in other areas of Colombia as El Sombrerón, it is a dark figure that is usually shown at night. In Antioch he is usually described as a man of great stature, thin, who hides his skull under a black hat with a wide brim. The myth tells that he travels accompanied by a black horse like the darkest night. When men find themselves on the road, they are being carried away by alcohol, gambling, or other vices, pursuing them in the midst of shouting threats.
Only Soul
In the region of Antioch is extended this legend that finds its origins in the catholic religion. In the regions where it has more presence, also the myth of the Anima Sola becomes more powerful. It is a benign spirit that represents the home keeper for many. For others, especially peasants, it is a soul trapped in purgatory. It helps to solve complicated problems and to find buried riches and lost possessions.
La Madremonte
“La Madre monte” is a legend in which a woman who wears moss, leaves and a green hat that conceals her face. She lives in the dense jungle and supposedly bathes in rivers, causing flooding and heavy storms. Madre monte haunts those who steal others people’s land and casts plagues on cattle owners who ignore boundaries and take advantage of others. She also dislikes unfaithful spouses, vagabonds, and general mischief-makers and punishes them by placing insurmountable obstacles in their path when they walk through the jungle. They eventually fall asleep with exhaustion and do not wake for hours.
When rains terrorise the land, there’s only one woman that can be responsible: Madre Monte. Madre Monte is an ecologically aware creature, punishing those who take advantage of the land or disrespect our earth. Covered from head to toe in mossy greenery, with her face obscured by an opaque hat, Madre Monte is also fiercely territorial. If you try to invade her land you’ll become victim to her furious rage that can extend to her bathing in your nearby rivers, causing floods and rains unheard of since the days of Noah. Madre Monte may not be a friend of yours, but make sure you’re a friend of the earth and you just might avoid coming into contact with her.
La Madre Monte
Madre monte (Mother Mountain) is a stout, elegant woman who wears moss and leaves and a green hat that conceals her face. She lives in dense jungle and supposedly bathes in rivers, causing flooding and heavy storms. Madre monte haunts those who steal others people’s land and casts plagues on cattle owners who usurp fields or ignore boundaries. She also dislikes unfaithful spouses, vagabonds and general mischief-makers and punishes them by placing insurmountable obstacles in their path when they walk through the jungle. They eventually fall asleep with exhaustion and do not wake for hours.
A legend usually attributed to women in all mythologies. The stories speak of a robust lady, dressed in the colors of nature. It watches the borders of the forests and the passage of the rivers. It faces those who commit a foul or attack on their neighbors. Sometimes they say it can confuse walkers and submerge them into a deep sleep. It can also trigger major disasters on the forest and its surroundings. This character from Colombian mythology is their version of the ‘mother nature’ character that reoccurs in the folklores of multiple civilizations.
As such, she is usually described as a protector of nature, and people who abuse or kill animals would be scared off by her. Despite that, she does care about humans and will not kill them. If someone tries to harm her, she will cast a spell on that person to put them into a deep sleep. She is also covered in plants and moss, which is fitting for a guardian of nature. This creature is often called “mother mountain” referencing the forested mountains in which she spends most of her time. It is said that when la Madremonte bathes in a river, floods and storms will follow. She is also known to punish unfaithful spouses, cattle thieves and cattle thieves who ignore land boundaries.
Hojarasquín
A generally gentle figure that lives in the forest. Like the Madremonte, its legend changes its name in different regions of the world, but it retains certain characteristics between which they are its aspect covered by the moss and the verdin and its fickle character. It can help to cross the forest safely to those who fall in grace. But it often causes humans to get lost in the forest they keep. Some say it takes the form of a fallen tree. This is why the peasants and ranchers of Antioch try to respect the dead trees on the ground. The myth helps behavior that enriches the forest ecosystem, given the importance of dead wood in biodiversity.
El Coco is the equivalent of the boogeyman in Latin American culture. It is very common for our parents to scare us into doing the right thing and the story of El Coco did it for most of us. The story is used into scaring young children to behave and as far as for go to sleep when their parents ask them to. Parents do this by singing lullabies such as “Duérmete niño, duérmete ya… Que viene el Coco y te comerá” which roughly is “Sleep child, sleep now… here comes the Coco and he will eat you” Children learn to fear El Coco because they are afraid he will either eat them or kidnap them if they do not obey and or go to sleep when they need to.
Myths and Legends Parade in Medellin
Common Myths and Legends in Colombia
The Tucano people (sometimes spelled Tukano) are a group of indigenous natives in the northwestern Amazon, along the Vaupés River and the surrounding area. They are mostly in Colombia, but some are in Brazil. The Curupira (Portuguese pronunciation: [kuɾuˈpiɾɐ]) is a mythological creature of Brazilian folklore, and its more monstrous Colombian version is known as Boraro (The Pale Ones). Much like the “Curupira” it has backwards facing feet to confuse it’s foes and is a protector of wildlife. Beyond its feet however, it is far more grotesque in appearance. It is very tall to the extent it is tree sized, pale skinned but covered in black fur, has large forward facing ears, fangs and huge pendulous genitals.
It has no joints in its knees, so if it falls down it has great trouble getting up. It uses two main ways to kills its victims, first its urine is a lethal poison (self-anointing behavior is common in several New World primates). Secondly, if it catches a victim in its embrace it will crush them without breaking skin or bones, until their flesh is pulp. Then it drinks the pulp through a small hole made in the victims head, after which the victims empty skin is inflated like a balloon and are then sent home in a daze, where they subsequently die. It can be placated by tobacco, but to escape it one can either place their hands in its footprints which will cause its legs to stiffen and temporarily fell the monster, or alternatively run backwards while facing it, which confuses the monster.
El Boraro
The Boraro – or “The Pale One” – is a version of the more famous Curupira myth of the Brazilian Amazon, albeit in an even more dark and monstrous form. With backwards facing feet designed to confuse its victims, the Boraro is covered in black hair and has huge fangs. Its main method of killing is to crush its victims in a vice-like embrace, so strong that it doesn’t even break their bones, it simply reduces them to a pulp! However, it has no joints in its legs, so if you knock it over it has trouble getting up.
El Perro Negro (The black dog)
El Perro Negro (The Black Dog) is a gigantic dog that shoots fire from his mouth and eyes and lurks in the otherwise tranquil Antioquia nights in search of lost travellers. Are you planning on walking the streets of Medellín at night, thinking to yourself that the only risk is indeed wanting to stay? Well think again. That chilling howl that pierces the night; the sound of a heavy chain being dragged slowly along; those thudding footsteps that mimic your heart as it beats faster and faster… run for your life. It could be The Black Dog – a tortured, demonic soul reincarnated chasing you to take you to a hotter, but considerably less pleasant, place that lies far, far beneath Medellin.
La Tunda
The myth of La Tunda comes from the Pacific Region of Colombia and is especially prevalent in the region’s Afro-Colombian communities. Said to be an ugly and monstrous woman living in the depths of the jungle, La Tunda has the ability to take on the form of someone you know or love, before hypnotising you and sucking your blood like a vampire. La Tunda also bears many similarities to a more common South American mythical creature known as the Patasola.
El Mohán
The Mohán – also known as the Muan, Moan, or sometimes Poira – is a name applied to several different mythological or supernatural creatures said to exist in the Amazon rainforest. Many of the Mohán tales come from Colombian Amazonian cultures (in fact, some indigenous cultures use the same word for a shaman), and there are several different interpretations of the story. Generally, the Mohán is portrayed as a hairy creature living in the backwaters of Amazon rivers, who shapeshifts and abducts young girls to have his way with them.
El Hombre Caiman
A legendary creature said to possess both human and alligator features, El Hombre Caiman (or “Alligator Man”) was supposedly once a fisherman who was transformed into an alligator by the spirits of the Magdalena River. He’s a sort of werewolf figure, who returns every St. Sebastian’s Day to hunt for victims. The myth is especially prevalent in the town of Plato, in Colombia’s Magdalena department.
El Pollo Maligno
The Evil Chicken – yes, you heard that right – isn’t quite as funny as it sounds, and it does sound pretty funny! Possessing the same tricky near/far whistling trick as El Silbón, the Evil Chicken is said to be an evil forest spirit that appears in the form of a bird, haunting hunters, and attracting them deep into the forest in order to devour them. You’ll think twice before you order the chicken now, won’t you?!
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the majestic Pink Dolphin of the Colombian Amazonas. The indigenous myth goes that a strong, handsome warrior was condemned to become a pink dolphin by the gods, who were jealous of his good looks. However, he has the ability to convert into a man when he comes out on land with a straw hat covering his only dead giveaway, that pesky blowhole. He is said to be one smooth operator and no woman can resist his charms. So he chooses a beautiful lady, they dance the night away, and then he takes her for a romantic walk along the river. Sounds like a nice date, right? Wrong! The next day the woman remembers nothing but within no time, she finds herself pregnant! In fact, many children without known fathers in the Amazon actually have “Dolphin Man” registered as their father on official records!
Indigenous Peoples Literature 